It’s time to get to know another Mozy employee. The more you know us, the more you love us. Meet Heidi Liebl-Slabinski, who is a Technical Writer.

I define my workspace as…

Utilitarian with a touch of whimsy in the form of frogs and a William Shakespeare action figure.

A device I can’t live without….

I do feel naked without my smartphone nearby, even if I don’t touch it for hours. Love my over-the-ear noise-cancelling headphones.

When I arrive at work, I typically start my day off by…

Coffee and a quick scan of some news sites.

My work routine is…

Highly variable, often with less writing than you might imagine. Lots of reading and listening and research and discussion and meetings are required. Some days are random chaos. Other days are focused almost entirely on writing and editing.I do/do not listen to music at work and it helps me work better because …

I started listening to music to block out distractions when I need to focus and write. It took me a while to find the right wall of sound, which is energizing and not distracting. I eventually settled on an instrumental/electronica Pandora station. Now, I’ve discovered that I can’t get into the writing zone without the headphones! But otherwise no music, because I get a lot from random cubicle conversations. The walls have ears (and they are mine)!

The best advice I can give a recent college graduate looking to do what I do is …

First and always, you need to be a solid writer. But don’t think this is a career for someone who sits at a desk and writes all day. You must be a perpetually curious, self-managed, extroverted introvert. You often have to pursue people to learn what you need to know, and disarmingly ask probing questions. Do your research first though, or you will only annoy people. Take pride in serving your audience well, and be willing to get hands-on familiar with your subject matter. Technical writers often have to manage their own projects, juggling multiple priorities and deadlines. You need to be very detail-oriented while also seeing the bigger picture.

Outside of work, I am passionate about …
Literacy. I cannot imagine how difficult life would be without the ability to read, and how sad and narrow it would be without the joy and knowledge that reading brings. I suspect the best writers are also voracious readers of good writing, in every genre. I also really enjoy alpine skiing, concerts and theatre (though I really don’t favor musicals), and time with my friends and family.

My eating habits are …
Everything in moderation. I am proud to say that I can make an order of Girl Scout cookies last a really long time.
P.S. Frank’s Red Hot Buffalo sauce. That stuff is awesome on just about everything.

If I could be someone for a day, I would be …
Living and working on board the Starship Enterprise. What’s not to love about an egalitarian meritocracy? Plus, they have tricorders and replicators and transporters!

The “secret sauce” that makes me who I am …

I’m a perfectionist who tries not to take myself too seriously. I love a good laugh.

Recently, I was listening to a story on the radio about the London real estate market and how prices are now 40 to 50 percent above the city’s 2007 highs. The real estate agency executive being interviewed was asked about efforts by some to put restrictions in place that are designed to prevent wealthy foreigners from buying too much of the prime central London real estate. Apparently, some 45 percent of the pricey London homes are being purchased by non-Brits. The realtor’s response was that people who think that restrictions are good are “up in cloud cuckoo land” because the foreign buyers are living in London and contributing to the local economy.

I just love that expression, “up in cloud cuckoo land.” I’d never heard it before, but after talking with a co-worker who lives in London, he assured me that it’s a legit quip by the Brits. “Up in cloud cuckoo land” got me thinking about other “cloud” expressions.

The following are some of my favorites.

“The clouds ye so much dread.” Hmm, I think I’ll talk to Mozy Marketing about this one. This could be the beginning of a clever ad campaign about why you want to stay away from our competitors.

How about these: “Dropping from the clouds,” “Thy cloud drops fatness,” and “O, clouds, unfold!” I’m pretty sure that some of the competition is guilty of those cloud faux pas. As for Mozy, our data centers have never been breached. No dropping data—or fatness—from our cloud. And rest assured that our cloud never unfolds.

“Cloud of unknowing.” You know Mozy; we’re the most trusted name in cloud data protection. That’s definitely worth knowing when looking for a cloud service provider.

“Get off of my cloud!” I remember watching Jagger strut around the Englewood Forum back in ’74 shouting, “Hey! You! Get off of my cloud!” So many years later, I can picture him encouraging everyone to join him on the Mozy cloud. Even rock stars know where their data is safe. Hey, Mick; I, too, am sick and tired, fed up with all of those other clouds. “Hey! You! Yeah, I’m talkin’ to you! Get on the Mozy cloud!”

“Every cloud has a silver lining.” Well not ours. The Mozy cloud is lined with the triple-protection of Tritanium. Yeah, that’s just our Marketing team having fun. Tritanium is a fictional compound, but it’s non-fictional strength. The Mozy Tritanium® Cloud is military-grade security, world-class data centers, and has the backing of storage leader EMC.

After this light conversation about clouds, let’s drift back down to earth, shall we? Mozy by EMC (NYSE: EMC) is your cloud provider. There are a number of reasons why you’ve chosen Mozy to back up and protect your data. Maybe it’s because Mozy seamlessly protects your endpoints and remote offices. Maybe it’s because Mozy helps boost workforce productivity with real-time file sync and mobile access. Or maybe it’s our award-winning customer support. And unlike London real estate costs, Mozy offers data protection at seriously low prices. Whatever the reason you use Mozy, the cost of backing up with Mozy makes good sense and provides peace of mind. There is nothing more important to us than ensuring that your data is protected and accessible. Any other approach is just, well, up in cloud cuckoo land.

In the immortal words of writer A.A. Milne, “How sweet to be a cloud.” Yeah, the Mozy backup cloud.

I woke up early this morning in a cold sweat after a bad dream. It’s those dang mosquitoes I read about last night. Actually, it’s not just any mosquito; it’s the new and improved mosquito.

I am not afraid of mosquitoes. I am not fond of them either, but I do respect the role they play in nature. Since I was young I’ve had an interest in entomology, so most of my life I’ve been around six-legged critters, including mosquitoes, of which there’s something like 3,500 described species. The larvae and adults provide a bounteous supply of food for a variety of animals, including birds, bats, and fish. However, it’s a fact that we humans don’t like any animal that sucks our blood. It doesn’t matter if it has six legs or two legs (I have daughters, so I know all about Edward and Bella from Twilight fame). But these mosquitoes from my dream are completely different from your everyday mosquitoes.

You’re probably wondering how a mosquito can be improved. Depends on who you ask. According to an article in Daily Tech, researchers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency hope to grow insect nerves into silicon computer chip connections to allow real insects to be remote controlled like remote-controlled airplanes. But the more realistic approach is the fully robotic type. Of course, when it comes to the government, there are lots of “I can’t confirm or deny that we’re doing this,” which everyone knows always means, “Yes, we’re doing this.”

But the more important question you’re probably asking yourself is why anyone would want to improve one of those blood suckers. Apparently, the U.S. government is developing new types of flying machines for the purposes of national defense. These machines are basically mini-drones—six-legged, two-winged flying machines called micro aerial vehicles, or “MAVs” for short. One version looks like a mosquito. And believe it or not, just like the real mosquito, it sucks. But not to feed. Apparently, future models will be able to pierce the enemy’s skin and take a DNA sample. Or worse, these diminutive drones, these minute minions of the military may be able to—at least in theory—leave behind something more than a welt on an opponent’s skin: radio-frequency identification tracking nanotechnology that’s capable of keeping tabs on an unsuspecting victim’s movements. You can run, but you can’t hide! It’s not fool-proof, of course. Just like the real mosquito, the robotic version could be swatted, squished, and squelched (though “squelch” takes on new meaning for these radio-controlled suckers).

Apparently, another insect on the list of MAVs is the beetle. Big deal, you may be saying to yourself. But it is. We have a framed beetle specimen from Africa in our home that has an impressive set of jaws and a wingspan of eight inches. If the military could do to the robotic beetle what it does to members of Seal Team 6, you not only have a formidable opponent that fights on sea, air and land, but one with the added bonus of some very large mandibles capable of making mincemeat of hostile forces. Kind of scary when you think about a battalion of beetles advancing from the air with absolutely no fear of death—because they’re not alive to begin with. I can almost hear Wagner’s “Flight of the Valkyries.”

If you ever encounter these MAVs, you will want to shout “Help!” Make no mistake, these beetles do not want to hold your hand, nor do they love you, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, they’re out to wreak havoc.

Think about the benefits of these tiny flying machines in fighting the war on terrorism. According to one source cited in a recent National Geographic article, these MAVs, or “entomopters” as they are also called, could look for Al-Qaeda operatives inside caves or other hideouts. But who really knows all of the applications for these MAVs? So the next time you see a mosquito, beetle, or any suspicious-looking six-legged creature buzzing around you, before you squish it or reach for a can of Raid, carefully consider what you’re up against. Sure, you may successfully squish it or spray it out of commission, but remember this: there’s more—many more—where it came from.

All cloud backup providers are not equal. Of course, you already know that; that’s why you depend on Mozy seven days a week. And if there were eight days a week, then we would back up and protect your data on the eighth day as well. And speaking of eight, in a recent BusinessNewsDaily article, Mozy’s Gytis Barzdukas, senior director of Product Management, identifies eight key elements a business should expect from a cloud storage provider:
• Financial stability
• Proven infrastructure
• Established customer base
• Geographically distributed data centers
• Security
• Robust encryption
• Third-party validation and accreditation
• Longevity and experience

Each element is important and should be expected by the customer. Of course, a few of these elements lose their attraction if the other elements aren’t part of the picture, so it’s important to understand what you need and why you need it. “Online data storage is a broad term that can mean lots of different things to lots of different people, so it’s really important for businesses to properly understand what’s right for their needs and what’s being offered by different providers,” Barzdukas says in the article.

Let’s take a few minutes to discuss why Mozy cloud backup protection is complete. You might already be familiar with this, but it’s still a nice refresher course and a reminder that Mozy has your back when it comes to protecting your data.

Financial stability: Mozy is profitable and is backed by EMC (EMC), the leader in storage. We’re not going anywhere, except to the future. Enough said.

Proven infrastructure: Mozy easily scales complete data protection from a single person to tens of thousands of devices in the enterprise with easy deployment options from Mozy’s feature-rich Admin Console, which lets admins perform their duties in ways that work best for them.
Established customer base: Sure, we can say that we protect a large customer base (6 million individuals), but we also protect 100,000 businesses and store more than 90 petabytes of information. (When you have a few minutes, read what our customers say about us on our Testimonials page.)

Geographically distributed data centers: Mozy servers are located in world-class data centers across the globe. And because there are regional jurisdictional requirements for data location, our data centers are situated where they need to be.

Security: We don’t take chances with the data that’s entrusted to us. The security of your data is our highest priority. Mozy security policies protect your information from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. Our data centers have never been breached.

Robust encryption: All data handled by Mozy is encrypted with military-grade encryption prior to transfer, during transit via an SSL connection, and it remains encrypted while at rest in our data centers. Users can choose a managed encryption key, or personal or corporate encryption keys for added security.

Longevity and experience: Mozy is an established cloud provider; we’ve been around since 2005. During that time we have gone through successful certification and auditing processes and have gained loads of experience in deploying and managing cloud infrastructure and providing award-winning customer support.

Maybe it goes without saying (but we like to say it anyway) that Mozy online backup is comprised of all of those elements. They’re eight more reasons why Mozy is the most trusted name in cloud data protection and why Mozy cloud backup means complete data protection. And when we say complete, we mean that your information is private, secure, and accessible. It’s there when you need it, whenever you need it, whether for the home, SMB, or enterprise. Seven days a week, eight days a week—whatever it takes—we’re here for you, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Years ago, shortly before graduating from college, I was heading to an interview for a photo editor position with what I thought was the key to my future: a dynamite portfolio. In those days, putting together a photo portfolio was time-consuming and costly. It may be difficult for the digital generation to appreciate that. Back in those days, there was no digital. A portfolio consisted of a leather binder with a dozen or so meticulously printed 8×10 black and white shots (yeah, I’m really dating myself now) that would hopefully wow the interviewer and land me the job. Before getting into my car, I had placed the portfolio on the roof of my car while searching for my car keys. I found my keys, got into the car, and drove off, confident in my sport jacket and tie that I would soon land a great job. Only one problem: I had not retrieved the portfolio from the roof of the car.

To make a long story short, I arrived at the interview; unfortunately, my portfolio did not arrive with me. Try explaining that to the interviewer. “Well, it was here when I last checked. No, seriously. It’s actually a pretty good portfolio. Really, you’d like it…if I could only show it to you.”

On my way home from a very short interview, I found my portfolio a block away from where I started. To be sure, it had that distressed look, having been run over by a dozen or so vehicles (the tread marks clued me in on that). And I think it must have been garbage day because the top cover of the binder had been torn away by something much heavier than a car. C’est la vie. Back to the dark room…and the job classifieds.

Things are much different today, sort of. In that same situation today, sans “hardcopy” portfolio, I could still have shown my photos by using my smartphone to access my Mozy Sync folder and then I could have forwarded my portfolio to the person giving the interview, impressing him with not only my dynamite portfolio but the convenience of Mozy Sync and the power of the Mozy mobile app as well. Of course, that assumes that I actually still had my smartphone.

As much as things change, in some ways they still remain the same. Take for example leaving my portfolio on the roof of my car. Would you believe that leaving your smartphone on the roof of your car and then driving off is one of the more common ways of losing your phone? If you don’t believe it, then you haven’t lost your smartphone that way…yet.

In a recent article published by Consumer Reports, “Setting your phone on the roof or hood of the car while you strap your kid into the car seat, load the groceries, or take off your jacket is a common mistake. You might not notice the phone is gone until you reached your next destination, and if you remember before then, you might find your phone sitting damaged on the road or in a parking lot.”

According to the Consumer Reports National Research Center, a projected 3.1 million smartphones were stolen last year. But those 3.1 million smartphones are just the ones that were stolen. According to a Mozy study, thieves aren’t to blame for most smartphones that end up missing; it’s the owners of the smartphones who are to blame. They’re losing their phones. That’s right: 70 percent of people who carry around portable devices have lost a data storage device. But losing the device really isn’t the worst of the problem.

Although the average cost of a lost item is $220.15, it’s not just the value of the item itself that has an impact. Of those who have lost a portable device, 57 percent said that they were more upset about losing the data on the device than losing the device itself. In fact, the Mozy study found that so strong is the desire to hang on to our smartphones—and the pictures, contacts, and messages on them—that 93 percent of people who have dropped one down a toilet have attempted to retrieve it. Eww.

So, where are the most likely places that you will lose your smartphone? Based on the findings of the Consumer Reports National Research Center, here is where you should make every effort to keep a firm grip on your phone:

Public transportation

Airports and airplanes

Restaurants and bars

Retail establishments

School property

Amusement parks

Hood or roof of a car

Public bathrooms

As I reflect on that interview of so many years ago and consider the fact that far too many smartphones are lost in public bathrooms, I can’t help but smile knowing that I would never have lost my portfolio in a toilet. It was way too big to fall in.

These days when it comes to news, you don’t have to scratch the surface too deep to see who is making headlines, often times for none-too-flattering reasons. Sometimes it takes a little more digging to find the stories that hit closer to home. These are stories that don’t make national headlines; however, they make a considerable difference for the community of the one making headlines. Take for instance the recent article in Utah Business online magazine that highlights 30 women to watch. Mozy employee Jamie Morningstar made the list.

According to the authors of the article, “30 Women to Watch,” “Much of Utah’s economic success can be attributed to the many ambitious, talented and hard-working individuals who are devoted to improving [our] state.” These women are individually and collectively “playing an important role in shaping Utah.”

What can we tell you about Jaime? Jamie is a product manager who works closely with the Mozy development teams. Although she began her career as a software engineer, she soon realized that her communications skills were stronger than her coding skills. As she says in the article, “I built on my core skills, in my case computer science, found what made me unique in that field, and developed it.”

Recently, when a fellow Mozy employee asked her to describe what she does, Jamie responded: “Basically, I listen to a lot of people about what they need, work with the engineers to get it done, and then tell people about it!”

With her drive for constantly looking for ways to refine and improve what we do here at Mozy, it’s no surprise that her skills and talents are also making a difference outside of Mozy. That difference is particularly apparent to Utah’s young women who are interested in technology.

Jamie’s concern about the growing technology gender gap caused her to spearhead Mozy’s and EMC’s 2014 sponsorship involvement in Award for Aspirations in Computing, whose purpose is to celebrate the achievements of young women and their aspirations in pursuing technology in computing. (To learn more about Jamie’s efforts with Award for Aspirations in Computing, click here.)

It’s always nice to be noticed, especially when you’re making a positive difference for the next generation. We hate to sound selfish, but we hope some of those whom Jamie is influencing and encouraging to pursue careers in technology find their way to Mozy.

From all of us at Mozy, congratulations, Jamie, for making it on the list of “30 Women to Watch”!

What you do at Mozy I help Mozy make the best business decisions based on the data from our products. I create reports and dashboards to visualize the data. I also manage and keep the BI servers and services running.

I define my workspace as…

Anywhere I am able to VPN into work; most of the time that’s from the office and home. If something breaks, it needs to be fixed. As long as I have a nice view of the mountains and a cold Mountain Dew, I’m good to work.

A device I can’t live without….

iPhone.

When I arrive at work, I typically start my day off by….

I first check if there is anything urgent or broken and get those resolved. Then I check the health/status of all the Business Intelligence servers and services and make sure that everything is running the way it’s supposed to. After that, I start working on Redmine ticket and requests.

My work routine is….

I don’t like to do the same things over and over, day after day. However, that can’t be avoided all the time. I like to find something new to learn every day and apply that to what I do. That helps change the routine, improves my work, and makes every day different from the day before.

I do/do not listen to music at work and it helps me work better because….

I listen to music as often as I can; however, part of my job requires talking to people and it’s a little hard to listen to a conversation with my headphones on…

The best advice I can give a recent college graduate looking to do what I do is …

Get a good education and make sure that the degree is in something you enjoy. Somewhere along the way you will discover among all of your classes that there is a topic that you enjoy more. Take classes in that subject and learn more about it. If you still like it, take more time to learn. Several careers have certain areas of specialization. It also helps to meet people who are already working in that field. Talk to them, ask questions, and also ask for advice. You would be surprised by how much people are willing to help you.

Outside of work, I am passionate about… Snowboarding and skiing in the winter. Cycling, swimming, and running in the summer.

My eating habits are… If you ask my wife she will say that it needs to improve. I think it’s just fine…. maybe smaller portions?

If I could be someone for a day I would be…. Anybody who can complete a triathlon.

The “secret sauce” that makes me who I am …. Mix Brazilian with Japanese and there you have it.

The Mozy team is thrilled about today’s announcement of EMC Elastic Cloud Storage (ECS) Appliance. For us, this is more than a product announcement from our parent company EMC. The ECS Appliance represents something significant for the Mozy service as well.

Since Mozy’s debut as a scrappy startup seeking to protect the world’s data with online backup, we have created much of the cloud storage software that allowed us to scale to well over 90 petabytes of customer data. The system we built handles over 120 terabytes uploaded each day. For almost a decade, the demand for more and more cloud storage has kept us focused on continued storage innovation.

When you read the ECS Appliance announcement, something quite relevant to Mozy stands out: “The ECS Appliance allows customers to add hyperscale cloud capabilities to existing private and hybrid cloud environments, delivering ease-of-use through self-service capabilities, fully automated provisioning, and data services for next-generation applications.” Hyperscale cloud storage overlaps a lot of what Mozy has been doing over the years. So could we use it at Mozy?

On evaluating the EMC ECS Appliance, we determined that it could easily handle Mozy’s massive storage scale with the resilience and durability that our customers expect from us. In considering it for our own use, we found that doing so would allow us to phase out certain parts of the infrastructure software that we have developed over the years. That would allow us to leverage the continuing innovation that EMC plans to invest in this powerful storage technology. Today, we’re delighted to announce that Mozy intends to adopt the EMC ECS Appliance.

With today’s announcement, EMC is helping Mozy redefine the focus of our R&D efforts. With ECS Appliance, Mozy can invest more in new features and further extensions to the Mozy service while also leveraging the staggering amount of innovation the EMC ViPR team will continue to invest in the ECS Appliance.

Regardless of an organization’s headcount or revenue, there is no denying that cloud backup is required by today’s businesses. It’s convenient (well, it should be). It’s cost-effective (well, it should be). And it’s scalable (well, it should be). If you want to protect your data, then you need to back up your data. What may not be as obvious is the cloud backup service that’s best for your particular business.

No one needs to tell you that there are many cloud backup companies out there. It may sound accurate to state that you have many options to choose from. But in reality, your options are not a numerous as a Google search for cloud backup services may imply. What you’re really after is the cloud backup service that’s best for your organization. When you are tasked with finding the best cloud backup service that’s best for your organization, there are far fewer options to choose from.

No business that creates cloud backup software is perfect in and of itself. We know that, you know that. When it comes down to it, it’s really the manner in which the business backs up what it sells. You can have the best cloud backup service out there, but without the best support for that service, the service may not meet all of your expectations.

Have you ever had a problem with something you purchased that you needed help with to get the product to perform to your specifications and to meet your requirements? Just about any product can perform to specs in a testing environment. That’s easy enough to do under controlled conditions. But in the real world, getting the product to perform the way you want it to perform can sometimes present challenges—even with the best of products. The truth is, the lab and real life can sometimes produce different results.

I remember purchasing a new home air conditioning unit some years ago. The brand on the AC unit is considered by many to be the best on the market. The company that installed the unit has a service reputation that is second to none. But guess what? The unit malfunctioned two weeks after it was installed. This occurred during one of the hottest summers on record. I had no idea that the inside of a home could hit the mid-90s. One particularly lasting memory of this experience was dumping ice cubes into a 50-gallon aquarium to keep our finned pets alive. No joke, the water was even too warm for our tropical fish. Some kicked the bucket (“Daddy, why is Dori floating upside down?”). Sure, we were disappointed that the AC unit wasn’t pumping out cold air, but we weren’t frustrated. I will tell you why. We called the company, patiently described the problem (“we’re hot as hell”), and kindly explained that we expected the problem to be fixed quickly. We paid good money for a product and service from the best in the business.

A service tech was at our home before we could pour another lemonade. The problem required a bit of troubleshooting, but the unit was repaired that day. Today, I can’t recall the specifics of the problem (it had something to do with our breaker box), but what I still remember very clearly is this: the service tech was friendly, knowledgeable, professional, and spoke to us as if we were important to their business and reputation. More than 20 years later, our AC unit is still keeping us cool.

Here are some important points to consider about Mozy cloud backup:
• Mozy by EMC is the most trusted name in cloud data protection.
• Mozy backs up more than 90 petabytes of data worldwide.
• Should you ever experience an issue or have a question, Mozy provides 24x7x365 U.S.-based support, which gives you access to our pros anytime you need them.
• Mozy offers additional services, including Professional Services and Managed Services.

It’s no secret that we here at Mozy believe that we offer the very best cloud backup service for your organization—any organization—whether you’re an SMB or a large enterprise. Cloud backup and recovery is what we do, and we believe we do it better than anyone else. Your business is important to us, so we’re here for you. Now that’s pretty cool in this day and age when so many claim to be the best but don’t back it up.